This was a surprisingly full year for cooperative expansions! This list had to be shorn because there were so many candidates! As usual, we qualify our expansions are one of three types:

1. Stand-Alone Expansion: Some games you thought might be on the Top 10 Cooperative Board and Card Games of 2023 might have just ended up on this list because they are stand-alone games that can be played without a base game, but at the end of the day they also expand a base game!
2. Makes The Game Cooperative: Some expansions take a competitive base game and make the game fully cooperative with the expansion! We saw a number of these type of expansions on the Top 10 Games That Can Be Played Fully Cooperatively!
3. More Content: Some expansions just add more content (more cards, etc.) to the base cooperative game!

This year we add a new characterization to expansions: Does it requires other expansions? At least two entries on our list require other expansions (besides the base game) in the same universe to play!

Some games you might have thought were here might be on our Top 10 Solo Board and Card Games of 2023! Check there for more delicious games of 2023!

Honorable Mention: Naturopolis

Expansion Type: Stand-Alone Expansion
Solo Mode: Yes (this game is probably best solo, but can play 1-4)
Requires Another Expansion?  No

Naturopolis is the third in “opolis” line from Button Shy Games: Spawlopolis, Agropolis, and now Naturopolis! They are small, 18-card cooperative tile-laying games that pack a lot of punch! This series of games made both our Top 10 “Small” Cooperative Games and our Top 10 Cooperative Tile-Laying Games!

These small tile-laying games are thinky puzzles for 1-4 players (but really solo is best). See our review of the follow-up Agropolis for more info about this series!

This only makes Honorable Mention because it’s really a standalone game which “barely” expands the base game via Ultimopolis: The Naturopolis expansion includes a way to play all three “opolis” games at the same time! Ultimopolis! It feels like a cheat to call this an expansion when Ultimopolis is just a few cards … but it’s still pretty cool.

10. Valor and Villainy: Antagonist’s Arsenal

Expansion Type: Makes The Game Cooperative
Solo Mode: Yes
Requires Another Expansion?  No

Valor and Villainy is a competitive 1-vs.-many game that has really stylized (almost funny) art and interesting mechanics, but it’s not cooperative.  Valor and Villainy is basically a dungeon crawler, but with a sense of humor.  The Antagonist’s Arsenal Expansion takes the base game and adds a cooperative and solo mode!  One of the reasons this expansion is further down the list is because this doesn’t just add that much for cooperative or solo play: it really adds a little bit of content/rules to make the base bad guy fight the players with an AI … but the rest of the expansion is for the competitive mode.

The rest of the expansion takes the fully cooperative Valor and Villainy: Lludwick’s Labyrinth (see our review of that there) and adds content to make THAT competitive!  But that’s still cool if you like competitive version! I mean, there’s quite a bit of stuff in this expansion!  Just … only some of it is for making the game solo/cooperative.

If you find yourself fully interested in playing a fully cooperative Valor and Villainy, then Valor and Villainy: Lludwick’s Labyrinth may be a better option (as it has more gameplay but is more expensive). But, if you already own Valor and Villainy and want to try a solo game or a cooperative game, this expansion can help you test the waters to see if you might like Lludwick’s Labyrinth before you jump in whole hog!

See our review here to see if you might like this system!

9. Spirit Island: Nature Incarnate

Expansion Type: More Content 
Solo Mode: Yes
Requires Another Expansion?  Yes! Strictly speaking, you need The Jagged Earth expansion, but it would also be good if you had the Branch and Claw expansion!

It’s hard to recommend this game unless you are a hard-core Spirit Island fanatic!  This expansion requires the Jagged Earth expansion, which “almost” requires the Branch and Claw expansion (it has those rules, but it goes so much better if you have played Branch and Claw expansion separately).

Branch and Claw adds Event Cards, two new Spirits, but mostly the Beasts, Wilds, Disease, Strife tokens and Options. See above.

Jagged Earth (see above) expounds upon Branch and Claw, adding a lot of new spirits, some reminder cards, some new conditions, Wild Brush, and Aspects. See a game above with the base game of Spirit Island, Branch and Claw, and Jagged Earth!

Finally, Nature Incarnate (see above) expounds on Jagged Earth and Branch and Claw to add even more!  Incarna!  More Aspects! (And shiny foil spirits!!??)

In the end, Nature Incarnate makes a great game even better by having even more variants to play: mostly more Spirits with very different play styles! That variety in Spirits helps keep this great game fluid and interesting. It does make you wonder, though: will the next Spirit Island expansion require Nature Incarnate as an expansion (which in turn requires Jagged Earth)?

8. Thunderstone Quest: Deepwood Defenders (Nature’s Wrath and Rotten Roots)

Expansion Type: More Content
Solo Mode: Yes (if you have Barricades Mode)
Requires Another Expansion?  Yes! Barricades Mode for cooperative/solo modes, and “other expansions” for more beasts/allies and other cards!

Boy, this train keeps on rolling, doesn’t it? The Deepwood Defenders Kickstarter is something like the 5th Kickstarter for AEG’s Thunderstone Quest fantasy-themed deck-builder game!

To be clear, to play these expansions cooperatively, you need the base game Thunderstone Quest (which is competitive: we reviewed it here) and the cooperative expansion Thunderstone Quest: Barricades’ Mode (which we reviewed here)! Only then can you play this expansion!

It’s actually quite a bit of work to get the base game, the cooperative expansion, and these expansions played! You are pulling cards from all three boxes, coordinating three rulebooks, and then adding some new rules! (And a few house rules: see our Seven House Rules for Cooperative Games here) It’s a bit exhausting! See one such mess above!

But it’s fun! Thunderstone Quest has a lot of great decisions as you build yourself up in town (left) and go adventuring in the dungeon (right). There’s always some great decisions in trying to do the best thing! This is a great game, and it has a lot of content. For example: I really liked the new Beastmaster class and really played into the allies from these expansions! (Below)

All in all, some great new expansions .. if you need new content. You may not need that much new content, since this is the 12 and 13th expansion!

7. Adventure Tactics: Adventures in Alchemy

Expansion Type: More Content
Solo Mode: Yes (original base game solo mode: play 3 characters)
Requires Another Expansion? No

The best part of this expansion is that it fixed a lot of issues with the base game!  See our original review here: The boards were warped, there were some typos, some cards were wrong, and the class guide was inconsistent with starting cards (it still is, unfortunately).  By being on the expansion Kickstarter, I got a lot of stuff upgraded!

We were a little luke-warm on Adventure Tactics originally (see our review), but this update helped change our minds.  The new character class (Alchemist) and new story in the new campaign guide really added some new life to the game! Plus, the new character Laine is very cute! New classes! New allies! New campaign! New minis! New standees!  

So, this expansion did what expansions are supposed to do: make you revisit the original game and bring it back into your zeitgeist.  It worked! I think I like Adventure Tactics more after playing the Adventures in Alchemy expansion!

6. Mists Over Carcassonne

Expansion Type: More Content, Makes The Game Cooperative, Stand-Alone Expansion
Solo Mode: Yes (very different way of playing but still works well)
Requires Another Expansion?  No

Mists Over Carcassonne is one of those rare games that does it all! It’s a standalone game in the Carcassonne universe, but it’s also completely cooperative!  It also can be used as an expansion to the original (competitive) Carcassonne game!

This cooperative tile-laying game lives in the world of Carcassonne!  It was so good it made the #1 spot on our Top 10 Cooperative Tile-Placement/Tile-Laying Games!

See our review here to see if you might like Mists Over Carcassone!

5. Rook City Renegades: Sentinels of the Multiverse (Definitive Edition)

Expansion Type: More Content
Solo Mode: Yes (original base game solo mode: play 3 characters)
Requires Another Expansion?  No

In another reality, The Rook City expansion for the 2nd edition of Sentinels of the Multiverse was my favorite expansion of all time!  So, this one had high expectations!  

In the end, I still like the 2nd Edition of Sentinels of the Multiverse better than the Definitive Edition, but I’ve said it many times: it’s just as good, it’s just what you are used to!  I still like the new system and I am collecting it.  The Definitive Edition is really a better game for people just starting out.

See our review here for Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition and here to see if you think Rook City Renegades might be right for you and your group!

4. Ares Expedition: Discovery, Foundations, Crisis

Expansion Type: Makes The Game Cooperative, More Content
Solo Mode: Yes
Requires Another Expansion?  No

Strictly speaking, you only need the Crisis mode expansion to make the game cooperative, and that expansion is available separately.  My group really liked this cooperative expansion! See below.

As much as my group liked this cooperative mode for Ares Expedition (see our very positive review here), my friends in Las Cruces didn’t like it … but they did like the other two expansions Discovery and Foundations!!  See our discussion on this here (RichieCon 2023 and Interesting Games).

The 6-Player expansion (Foundations) got played quite a bit at RichieCon 2023!  See above!

It’s pretty clear that if you like Ares Expedition, you will like at least ONE of the 3 expansions: Crisis (the cooperative mode), Discovery (more stuff mode), or Foundations (6-Player mode).  Clearly, the best thing to do is to get the the box with all three expansions!

3. Cantaloop Book 3: Against All Odds

Expansion Type: Stand-Alone Expansion
Solo Mode: Yes (this game is probably best solo)
Requires Another Expansion?  No, but you probably want to have played Books 1 and 2

Cantaloop Book 3: Against All Odds is the third and final book in the Cantaloop Trilogy.  Cantaloop Book 1: Breaking Into Prison was so good (see our review here) that it made the #1 top spot of our Top 10 Cooperative Games of 2021!  It’s follow-up Cantaloop Book 2: A Hack of a Plan wasn’t quite as good (see our review here), but it still made our Top 10 Cooperative Expansions of 2022!

What makes the Cantaloop series so good is that they are what point-and-click adventure games (like Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle) would be in book form!  And they have a great sense of humor! They are actually quite funny (like Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle), if a little raunchy.

The game uses the little red acetate to hide clues throughout the book: you explore, combine objects, talk to people, and there is even a hint system!

Overall, the third book really knocked it out of the park and finished this fantastic trilogy with a bang! If you like humor and point-and-click adventure games, the Cantaloop series is fantastic! See our review of Cantaloop Book 3: Against All Odds for more information!

2. Battle for Greyport: Chaos in Copperforge

Expansion Type: More Content
Solo Mode: No (but you can play 2 characters and alternate: it’s not official)
Requires Another Expansion?  No

This might surprise some of you that this expansion is so high! Honestly, it just reminded me how much I like the original game!

It’s not flashy or large, but the newest expansion adds some new cards and humor into the Battle for Greyport world! Battle for Greyport is a cooperative deck-building game that I think is a hidden gem! See our of Battle for Greyport review here! It made the #5 spot on our Top 10 Cooperative Deck-Builder Games! The expansion Pirates! made the #5 spot on our Top 10 Swashbuckling Games!

It’s more great stuff for a great game! See our review of Chaos in Copperforge for Battle for Greyport to see if this is something you would like!

1. Unmatched Adventures: Tales To Amaze

Expansion Type: Makes The Game Cooperative, Standalone Expansion
Solo Mode: Yes (introduced by this expansion, but cooperative mode is significantly better)
Requires Another Expansion?  No, but see below

I have been waiting and waiting for Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze for some time! Honestly, I’ve been looking for a cooperative way to play all my Marvel Unmatched expansions! Now, with this new expansion, I can solo play any of the Unmatched Marvel heroes, or take a group into a cooperative Adventure!

Although this expansion is standalone (coming with 4 heroes to play), we ended up playing with Marvel Heroes from other boxs most/all of the time! See above!

The game was fun (see as my friends are smiling ear-to-ear) and having a grand time!

The components are amazing and this was quite good! See our review of UnMatched Adventures: Tales To Amaze here to see if it’s something you might enjoy!